Murdered Texas IMB worker ‘Meek & mild,’ ‘friend for life’

RICHMOND, Va.—Cheryll Harvey will be remembered by those who knew her growing up in the far West Texas town of Sudan as quiet, meek and mild, “a friend for life,” with a good sense of humor.

On Sept. 7, Jordanian authorities announced the arrest of a young Jordanian man in the stabbing murder of the 55-year-old Southern Baptist worker, whose body was discovered in her apartment in Irbid, Jordan on Sept. 4.

Robbery was the apparent motive, officials said.

Harvey, a single woman, served the Jordanian people for 24 years, demonstrating the love of Jesus by teaching English and other subjects in connection with the Jordan Baptist Society.

Robert Roecker, pastor of First Baptist Sudan, said the church is in a “state of shock.” Harvey had visited her childhood church several times since Roecker became pastor, offering slideshows of her work in the Middle East.

A friend of Harvey’s relayed to him that “Cheryl talked about how when she retired she might just stay in Jordan. She just really loved it there and loved the people.”

Ten years ago Harvey founded the ESL language center where she taught in Irbid, Jordan’s second-largest city and home to several universities. The center, which averages between 300 and 400 college students each semester, is so popular that a lottery system is used to determine which students can apply for entrance. Previously, Harvey taught primary school-age children at the Ajloun (Jordan) Baptist School.

Teaching wasn’t just a job for Harvey; it was a passion. Co-workers had to pressure her to take a vacation once in a while.

“God has given me the ability to teach,” she once said—and she used that ability to the fullest. But it wasn’t an end in itself. For her, teaching was a way to express the love of Christ to generations of Jordanian students.

“It’s obvious that they love her because they feel her love for them,” a friend observed.

Despite her relentless work schedule, Harvey made time to connect with her students as a friend and mentor.

“What was so amazing to me about Cheryll was that she could be the director of the center and teach full time and make numerous visits every week [to her students’ homes],” said a colleague. “In my whole life I’ve never known anybody who could pack one day with as much as Cheryll constantly did.”

“Cheryll was greatly loved by both our personnel in North Africa and the Middle East and by her many students,” said IMB President Tom Elliff. “We are faced once again with a sobering reminder of the brevity of life and the importance of faithfully serving the Lord to the very end of our time on earth. Cheryll has left for us a great example that we should follow.

“She … will always be remembered for her quiet and unassuming spirit, as well as her passion for sharing the Good News.”

Harvey was a member of College Heights Baptist Church in Plainview, and grew up attending First Baptist Church in Sudan. Family and colleagues were notified late on Sept. 4. Harvey is survived by two brothers who reside in Texas.  

She received the bachelor of science degree from Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas; the master of arts degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth; and the master of education degree from Wayland Baptist University in Plainview. She taught in several Texas schools before going to Jordan, including the elementary school in her hometown where she'd attended as a girl.

Harvey is survived by two brothers who reside in Texas. Funeral arrangements are incomplete pending the ongoing police investigation of her death.

“As with any event such as this, it is imperative that we remember Cheryll’s surviving family members and friends, and that we lift them up in prayer during these days,” Elliff said. “We best honor her by giving honor to the Lord Whom she so faithfully served.”

Roecker, the FBC Sudan pastor, recalled: “The thing that always astounded us was when you heard her speak she was just a meek and mild person with just a soft voice. It’s not the picture you have in your mind of someone who is on the front lines in Jordan. To have that courage and faith was amazing to us. The folks who knew her here were always saying how surprised they were at what was God was able to do through her.”

LaDelta Vernon, Harvey’s third-grade teacher who would often talk to her while the missionary came home on occasional furloughs, said she always imagined the quiet, well-behaved girl with the distinctive laugh would grow up and raise three daughters. As it turned out, she never married. She was a helper, Vernon said, so her teaching English wasn’t a surprise. That she taught it in the Middle East was, however.

“She was a good student. If she was your friend, she was your best friend. She didn’t talk behind people’s back. She was just a sweet, sweet girl,” Vernon said. “She was doing what she wanted to do, what God called her to do.”

TIRELESS TEACHER

Harvey spent many hours of her own time tutoring Jordanian high school students to pass the high-stakes, comprehensive exams that determine who graduates, who gets into college and what they will study. 

She helped one student struggle through nursing school, even studying medical terms and textbooks to tutor him more effectively. He respected Harvey so deeply that he asked her to visit the family of his prospective bride to help him decide if she would be a suitable wife.

“She had such a gentle and mild spirit,” said a friend. “She was a person that people could come to.”

It was the same with her younger students at the Baptist school in Ajloun.

“Cheryll was known throughout the village,” recalled a co-worker. “She visited in the homes of all of her students. She even showed up at students’ homes when they weren’t expecting her. … Cheryll was all about the people. She spent a large portion of every year visiting her students, making sure that she went into the home of every single student.”

A colleague asked Southern Baptists to pray for the many people touched by Harvey’s life.

“Cheryll was a gentle person who loved Jesus,” he said. “She showed that love to Jordanians, first to the many children she taught in Ajloun and their families and then to those in Irbid as she taught English. … She connected with her people at the heart level. We pray that her witness continues to bear much fruit. … Cheryll’s life has crossed the finish line. She was faithful through the end of this life and to the beginning of her real life.”

—Reporting by the IMB’s Don Graham and Erich Bridges and the TEXAN’s Jerry Pierce